YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world and has over one billion unique visitors each month, but it’s underutilized by brands. When I compared the top five brands on YouTube and Facebook, the engagement was 20x greater in favor of YouTube. In order to help brands capitalize on this massive engagement, YouTube has been educating advertisers on a new content strategy framework called “Hero, Hub, Hygiene“. The three pronged approach outlines the types of videos YouTube recommends brands create for their channel to grow organic viewership and subscribers.

YouTube defines the hero, hub, hygiene videos, as:

Hero – large scale videos that reach the masses at scale

Hygiene – always-on videos that are optimized to viewer’s intentions and interest

YouTube Strategy for Brands: Hero, Hub Hygiene Explained

Hygiene and hub videos are the greatest departure from what brands typically create. For the majority of YouTube’s existence brands have focused on viral videos, while individual creators have implemented more of an ‘always on’ approach. The latter has developed thriving communities with engaged fans that generate more earned viewership and engagement. YouTube is focused on communicating this insight to brands, and its one that I typically encourage my own clients to adopt when working within the platform.

To bring the hero, hub, hygiene strategy to life, I’ve outlined a cheat sheet in the form of an infographic below.

Brendan Gahan is a YouTube expert helping Fortune 500 brands with their YouTube influencer and community building campaigns. He was named Forbes 30 Under 30 in Marketing & Advertising, invited to the White House as one of the nation’s youth leaders to advise on how to get the word out about the Affordable Care Act, and was named one of the 25 Top YouTube Business Power Players for 2013.